TWILIGHT LAND

palace, you may be sure. The princess told all about
how she had been carried away during the night, and had
supped in such a splendid palace, and with such a hand-
some man dressed like an emperor. She showed her
necklace of diamonds, and the king and his prime-minister
could not look at it or wonder at it enough. The prime-
minister and the king talked and talked the matter over
together, and every now and then the proud princess put
in a word of her own.

“ Anybody,” said the prime-minister, “can see with
half an eye that it is all magic, or else it is a wonderful
piece of good luck. Now, I'll tell you what shall be done,”
said he: ‘the princess shall keep a piece of chalk by her ;
and, if she is carried away again in such a fashion, she
shall mark a cross with the piece of chalk on the door of
the house to which she is taken. Then we shall find the
rogue that is playing such a trick, and that quickly
enough.”

“Yes,” said the king; ‘that is very good advice.”

“‘T will do it,” said the princess.

All that day Jacob Stuck sat thinking and thinking
about the beautiful princess. He could not eat a bite,
and he could hardly wait for the night to come. As soon
as it had fallen, he breathed upon his piece of glass and
rubbed his thumb upon it, and there stood the Genie of
Good Luck.

“I'd like the princess here again,” said he, ‘‘as she was
last night, with feasting and drinking, such as we had
before.”

“To hear is to obey,” said the Genie.

And as it had been the night before, so it was now.
The Genie brought the princess, and she and Jacob Stuck

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